His tenure was marked by the end of the Bastion Point occupation, the Mount Erebus disaster, the 1981 Springbok tour, and the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the convictions of Arthur Allan Thomas for the murders of Harvey and Jeannette Crewe.
[1] Born in Auckland on 8 December 1921, Walton was educated at Mount Albert Grammar School.
[2] During World War II, he saw service in the Middle East, Italy and Japan, and later served in the Royal New Zealand Army Service Corps (Territorials), retiring as colonel commandant in 1986.
[2] Walton joined the New Zealand Police, and led the investigations into the Bassett Road machine gun murders in 1963.
[3] In the 1965 Queen's Birthday Honours, he was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (Military).